Pages

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Souvenir Saturday: Caithness and Eling Echoes

Eling Tide Mill would have
been a landmark familiar to members of the Caithness
family in the 19th century.

Situated on the edge of
Southampton Water beside the New Forest, it is
one of the few tidal mills in the world still producing stone ground flour
daily, a tradition dating back 900 years.

Caithness descendant Peter Hay visited Eling and environs and
took the photographs below.Abandoned in the 1940s the mill was restored and re-opened in 1980 as a working mill and a museum commemorating
this aspect of Britain’s
industrial heritage.

The millstone in the foreground would have been in use in the Caithness family's era.

Another local feature is the
only surviving medieval toll in Hampshire (started c1418) on the causeway which runs directly
past Eling Tide Mill. The mill and toll were owned by WinchesterCollege
until 1975 when ownership passed to the local Council.

The charge to pass through the toll increased from sixpence in 1967 to 30 pence in 1988 to over £1 more
recently.